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Nick Strayer
I have made visualizations viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, sped up query times for 25 terabytes of data by an average of 4,800 times, and built packages for R that let you do magic.
Currently searching for a data science position that allows me to build tools using visualization and machine learning to help people explore and understand their data.
Education
PhD. Candidate in Biostatistics
Nashville, TN
Vanderbilt University
2020 - 2015
- Working on Bayesian network models & interactive visualization platforms
- University Graduate Fellow
B.S., Mathematics, Statistics (minor C.S.)
Burlington, VT
University of Vermont
2015 - 2011
- Thesis: An agent based model of Diel Vertical Migration patterns of Mysis diluviana
Selected Positions
Graduate Research Assistant
Vanderbilt University
TBILab (Yaomin Xu’s Lab)
2020 - 2015
- Primarily working with large EHR and Biobank datasets.
- Developing network-based methods to investigate and visualize clinically relevant patterns in data.
Data Science Researcher
Johns Hopkins University
Data Science Lab
2018 - 2017
- Building R Shiny applications in the contexts of wearables and statistics education.
- Work primarily done in R Shiny and Javascript (node and d3js).
Data Journalist - Graphics Department
New York, New York
New York Times
2016
- Reporter with the graphics desk covering topics in science, politics, and sport.
- Work primarily done in R, Javascript, and Adobe Illustrator.
Undergraduate Researcher
University of Vermont
Rubenstein Ecosystems Science Laboratory
2015 - 2013
- Analyzed and visualized data for CATOS fish tracking project.
- Head of data mining project to establish temporal trends in population densities of Mysis diluviana (Mysis).
- Ran project to mathematically model the migration patterns of Mysis (honors thesis project.)
Human Computer Interaction Researcher
University of Michigan
LabInTheWild (Reineke Lab)
2015
- Led development and implementation of interactive data visualizations to help users compare themselves to other demographics.
Engineering Intern - User Experience
Burlington, VT
Dealer.com
2015
- Built internal tool to help analyze and visualize user interaction with back-end products.
Data Science Intern
Burlington, VT
Dealer.com
2015
- Worked with the product analytics team to help parse and visualize large stores of data to drive business decisions.
Data Artist In Residence
Carpinteria, CA
Conduce
2015 - 2014
- Envisioned, prototyped and implemented visualization framework in the course of one month.
- Constructed training protocol for bringing third parties up to speed with new protocol.
Undergraduate Researcher
University of Vermont
Bentil Laboratory
2014 - 2013
- Developed mathematical model to predict the transport of sulfur through the environment with applications in waste cleanup.
Software Engineering Intern
Carpinteria, CA
Conduce
2014
- Incorporated d3.js to the company’s main software platform.
Research Assistant
University of Vermont
Adair Laboratory
2013 - 2012
- Independently analyzed and constructed statistical models for large data sets pertaining to carbon decomposition rates.
Selected Writing
Using AWK and R to Parse 25tb
N/A
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
2019
- Story of parsing large amounts of genomics data.
- Provided advice for dealing with data much larger than disk.
- Reached top of HackerNews.
Classifying physical activity from smartphone data
N/A
RStudio Tensorflow Blog
2018
- Walk through of training a convolutional neural network to achieve state of the art recognition of activities from accelerometer data.
- Contracted article.
The United States of Seasons
N/A
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
2018
- GIS analysis of weather data to find the most ‘seasonal’ locations in United States
- Used Bayesian regression methods for smoothing sparse geospatial data.
A year as told by fitbit
N/A
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
2017
- Analyzing a full years worth of second-level heart rate data from wearable device.
- Demonstrated visualization-based inference for large data.
MCMC and the case of the spilled seeds
N/A
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
2017
- Full Bayesian MCMC sampler running in your browser.
- Coded from scratch in vanilla Javascript.
The Traveling Metallurgist
N/A
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
2017
- Pure javascript implementation of traveling salesman solution using simulated annealing.
- Allows reader to customize the number and location of cities to attempt to trick the algorithm.
The Great Student Migration
N/A
The New York Times
2016
- Most shared and discussed article from the New York Times for August 2016.
Wildfires are Getting Worse, The New York Times
N/A
The New York Times
2016
- GIS analysis and modeling of fire patterns and trends
- Data in collaboration with NASA and USGS
Who’s Speaking at the Democratic National Convention?
N/A
The New York Times
2016
- Data scraped from CSPAN records to figure out who talked and past conventions.
Who’s Speaking at the Republican National Convention?
N/A
The New York Times
2016
- Used same data scraping techniques as Who’s Speaking at the Democratic National Convention?
A Trail of Terror in Nice, Block by Block
N/A
The New York Times
2016
- Led research effort to put together story of 2016 terrorist attack in Nice, France in less than 12 hours.
- Work won Silver medal at Malofiej 2017, and gold at Society of News and Design.